


Black Light

by DarknessAroundUs



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 03:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16233671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessAroundUs/pseuds/DarknessAroundUs
Summary: William H. Baylor invented the black light in 1932. At the time he wasn’t sure what purpose it would serve. He speculated that it might help authenticate paintings, but beyond that he wasn’t sure.A Soulmate AU.





	Black Light

 William H. Baylor invented the black light in 1932. At the time he wasn’t sure what purpose it would serve. He speculated that it might help authenticate paintings, but beyond that he wasn’t sure.

His kids loved his invention because of the way it made their teeth look funny in the dark. His wife despised the black light because it revealed how dirty the sofa really was. When he showed it to his colleagues, all were impressed.

When Baylor introduced black light to the scientific world during a conference in 1935, he turned the whole conference room into an otherworldly place. That is when he first discovered another surprising purpose of black light.

Two of the scientists in a room full of 575 scientists, discovered that they were soulmates. On their hands, written in a substance that only the black light revealed, were each others names - first and last. These two scientists were already married to each other. The revelation served as a confirmation of their love. It made them uncomfortably famous.

It was the beginning of the end of Baylor’s own marriage. He and his wife had no secret tattoos. It turned out that most couples didn’t. Finding one’s soulmate was extremely rare. After all the world was a large place.

At first people were skeptical about the tattoos. The whole idea of soulmates felt manufactured, false in some way.

Why on earth, if there was such a thing as soulmates, would the evidence of this phenomena be so hidden? Presumably the marks had existed for thousands of years without there being a technological way for people to see them.

It soon became clear that if you even glanced at your soulmate in passing, their name – first and last, would show up on your hand. You had to see them in person though, a photograph or over video chat would not count.

Most people installed a black light in their bathroom and starting in their early teens they would check every day for a name to appear on their hands hoping to see the first and last name of their beloved. They would hope that name would be an uncommon one. Parents began naming their kids more unusual names in the hopes of improving the odds of their soulmate finding them.

Black light clubs became extremely popular. Couples who were soulmates loved to show off there. Singles loved the idea of meeting in a club where it would be immediately obvious that you had met (or not met) your soulmate.

Each year there were six black light conferences that drew people from all over the world, each hoping to find that at the end of the day there would be a name on their wrist.

If you attended three conferences the odds went up to 5% that you might meet your soulmate. Still hundreds of thousands made the trek each year walking around all day looking at people, trying to see as many people as possible in the time they had there.

Not everyone wanted to go under the black light. Most people still married outside of the soulmate system, for obvious reasons. Once they got married most people never put their hands under the black light again.

Still black lights were used for other things. They were very helpful in proving cash counterfeit and spotting semen on a crime scene. They were still used in fun houses. They were occasionally even used in school plays.

When Mr. Hunter, the first-grade teacher at Riverdale Elementary was tasked with putting on a play that was set under the sea, he immediately settled on the budget friendly option of using a black light.

No one under the age of 12 had ever been discovered to have a soulmate, the audience would not be under the black light, so they would be unaffected if any had a mark they would want to keep secret or one that they themselves did not know about it.

Mr. Hunter was shocked to discover during the first day of rehearsals that two students already had each others names on their hands. Betty Cooper’s hand had Forsythe Pendleton Jones III written on it and Jughead Jones’s said Elizabeth Cooper.

This was unheard of. Mr. Hunter shook with the shock of it. He also found himself in an unprecedented ethical position. He could tell these children what happened, although at the age of six they couldn't really understand what had happened, or he could tell their parent’s and let their parents decide how to proceed.

If it was any of the other children he would have told the parents. But Betty’s parents were high strung and Jughead’s were largely absent, his mother had left when he was two, and his father was inconsistent in his sobriety. Neither was particularly good at putting their child first.

If this information got out Betty and Jughead would be famous. He couldn’t imagine that level of fame would be good for six year olds, or for the relationship the soul mate mark promised. Besides six year olds were too young to be in any kind of relationship. It wasn’t like the information was currently pertinent. 

Mr. Hunter decided that it was in both the children’s best interest if they didn’t find out about this and neither did their parents. He decided that the right thing to do was to not tell anyone and to keep an eye on them for the next couple of years.

It was too late for Mr. Hunter to do the play without back light so he reassigned Betty to make costumes and Jughead worked on the sets.

Neither child seemed to care about the reassignment. Alice complained of course, but that was to be expected.

Jughead’s father fell off the wagon for good when Jughead was seven. Fred and Mary Andrews became his legal guardians. Betty, Archie, and Jughead grew up in each others houses and back yards and at ten, when Archie was away at baseball camp, Betty and Jughead fell in love.

Although it wasn’t quite as simple as that. First Jughead fell out of his treehouse, then because of the limited mobility his arm cast created, Betty started to come over every day to read to him, or to at the very least help him turn the pages. They both credit Narnia with the start of their relationship. Not _The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe_ but _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_.

At ten their relationship mostly involved holding hands (particularly once Jughead got the cast off) and occasional kisses. Mary caught them once, but dismissed it is childhood exploration. When Alice caught them kissing at twelve she took it a lot more seriously. They were not left alone together for over a year.

Mr. Hunter passed away unexpectedly that year. Both children remembered him fondly though faintly. He had not intended to take their secret to his grave, but he did.

At thirteen Archie started checking his left hand every day under a black light. It was still blank. Alice and Hal encouraged Betty to do the same, but she was not interested. She had Jughead already. If he wasn’t her soulmate she didn’t need to know about it. Jughead felt the same way.

This enraged Alice, her daughter throwing her life away like this, after falling for someone (someone named Jughead no less) at an impossibly young age.

One night when Betty was very asleep Alice snuck into Betty’s bedroom with a portable black light and raised it over Betty’s left hand. The name Forsythe Pendleton Jones III was there as clear as day.

Alice struggled to fall asleep that night. She was tempted to tell Betty in the morning, but decided ultimately that would serve no purpose.

It did help change Alice’s mind about Jughead. After all soulmates had a less than 1% divorce rate. As much as Alice would like Betty to be paired with someone from a more successful family, there was no point in fighting against a relationship that seemed bound to be successful.

So when Betty and Jughead eloped at nineteen (Archie and his girlfriend Val were the witnesses), Alice didn’t complain, she simply gave them the wedding gift she had purchased years ago. Hal was angry, but that anger dissipated when Alice finally told him what she found out years ago. He was mad at Alice for several weeks for keeping that from him.

At twenty-two Jughead started teaching English at Riverdale High School and at twenty-three Betty joined the Riverdale Police Force, where she was partnered with an older cop, Tom Patterson. Tom was a great partner. He was supportive, understanding, and kind. He became friends with Jughead as well and would often come over for dinner.

A year into being partners Tom and Betty were working a case at a hotel. A women was missing. She was last seen in her hotel room. Tom brought a black light to scan the room for bodily fluids. Betty was standing besides the bed when he caught her hand in the light.

Tom started laughing uncontrollably.

“What is going on?” Betty asked him. “What is so funny? We are looking for a missing women here."

Tom finally got control of himself and with a smile on his face said “I can’t believe that is Jughead’s real name. I finally understand why he goes by Jughead.”  
  
“What?” Betty asks, completely confused by the situation.

“You didn’t know?” Tom asked, pointing at Betty’s hand in the black light. She looked at it, a smile spreading across her face.

“I had no idea.” She says with a smile. When she calls Jughead from the lobby of the hotel, he isn’t surprised. But later that night they both look at their hands under the black light together. It was confirmation they didn’t need, but it was nice to have anyways.

Neither was particularly pissed when it turned out that Alice had known for over a decade. In fact it explained why Betty’s mother had gone so much easier on them once they were in high school. No one ever found out that Mr. Hunter knew, all those years ago.

**Author's Note:**

> While William H. Baylor was credited with inventing the black light I couldn’t really find out much more about him, so everything else about him is made up. 
> 
> Also a debt of gratitude is owed to my two favorite soulmate stories - Snakes and Crowns and Call me a Safe Bet, I'm Betting I'm Not. 
> 
> I am thankful for any comments!


End file.
